Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was a little taken aback when I saw that the agenda was the same as the last meeting and I was wondering why we needed two meetings on this particular issue. I am sure the witnesses felt that they had adequately explained themselves. Anyway, I will leave that to the steering committee to explain.
Mr. Chair, with your indulgence, I will just read a little bit from the Edmonton Journal of February 17. I will just basically say that it has been announced that the public accounts in the province of Alberta have decided they are going to provide research staff to their own public accounts committee. It says here: “The Alberta legislature watchdog will no longer be without a dedicated staff, nor will it be squeezed into so few meetings that it cannot...” do its job properly. It's going to be able to meet all year round.
My congratulations to the public accounts committee of Alberta. They are now ahead of us, because they are going to have some full-time paid staff.